ISBN : 9780199840670
For developing countries, the concept of sustainable development, as opposed to rapid pockets of development, embodies great promise for socio-political reasons. Most analyses of development, however, have focused on either trade mechanisms or intellectual-property regimes, which has resulted in overly narrow and sometimes paradoxical conclusions, with corresponding policy measures that have promised far more than they can deliver. While each of these mechanisms has benefits and disadvantages, questions about how they would interact and what kind of results they produce remain largely unexplored. Similarly, almost all of these regimes provide generalized solutions that developing countries tend to denounce as ill-fitting. There are several flexibilities that can be used as effective tools, but knowing which flexibility applies best to what context remains contentious. In Patent and Trade Disparities in Developing Countries, Srividhya Ragavan examines the interaction between trade and intellectual property regimes (using the patent regime in India as the focal point) in an integrated developmental framework to determine whether and how sustainable economic growth can be achieved in developing countries. This book examines a number of important questions: Is compulsory licensing the best way to provide access to medication or is patent protection more efficient? Should innovation in plant breeding be protected at all? If so, should it be using patents or a sui generis mechanism?
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PREFACE
CHAPTER 1
CORRELATION BETWEEN PATENTS & DEVELOPMENT: LESSONS FROM HISTORY
CHAPTER 2
THE UNEQUALS: NATIONAL REALITIES & PATENT REGIMES OF THE DEVELOPING WORLD
CHAPTER 3
THE INTERNATONAL TRADE REGIME IN PERSPECTIVE
CHAPTER 4
THE POOR NATIONS HARMONIZE
CHAPTER 5
THE MISSING PIECE OF THE TRIPS PUZZLE: PROCEDURAL MECHANISMS
CHAPTER 6
TRIPS PATENT REGIME: THE POVERTY PENALTY
CHAPTER 7
IS A SUBSTANTIVE REGIME ADEQUATE TO GENERATE FULL COMPLIANCE? THE BIOTECHNOLOGY DEBATE
Chapter 8
Dying to Dine -The Story of the Great Agricultural Barrier
CHAPTER 9
The Debate on Plant Variety Protection
Chapter 10
Harvesting Poverty: The PBR Story in a Subsidy Plot
CHAPTER 11
Biodiversity: The Third but Ignored Paradigm of the Trade Regime
CHAPTER 12
Can the Trade Regime Lead to Sustainable Development?
INDEX